Alex didn’t answer. Instead, he took a rubber duck out of his pocket and set it on the desk in front of Grace, who stared at it with narrowed eyes.
“What’s this?” she asked when it became clear that Alex wasn’t going to explain anything.
“Well, I saw you focusing on work and looking frustrated,” Alex said. “So, I went to getthisguy. It may seem silly, but sometimes, talking a problem out with an inanimate object that can’t judge or offer feedback helps. Give it a try.”
“Um…” Grace tucked her hair behind her ear. “Okay. Um. Hi, duck.”
She glanced up at Alex, who nodded encouragingly. “Keep trying.”
“I feel silly.”
“Maybe that’s part of it.” He grinned and gestured to the duck. “You’ve got this.”
“Well, okay. So, duck, the problem is that it’s difficult to rank features in order of priority,” Grace explained. “Should location be most important? Questionnaire compatibility? Age? And then, when I go into the code and try to rank them, I keep getting weird outputs.” She sighed. “With an app like MatchupNow, it’s so important that the first few profiles are compatible. Otherwise, people end up swiping a lot, getting disappointed, and giving up. The questionnaire answers are important, but I’ve heard feedback from beta testers that going through all three layers only to find out that the match lives far away or is an incompatible age is frustrating.
“So, duck, what should I do?”
The duck, unsurprisingly, did not answer.
Grace sighed. “Maybe location… no! Wait. It should be a factor created out of the compatibility of the age, profession, goals, and location of the profile with what the user is looking for. That way, once users get through the first layers, they’ll see someone they wanted to find. The secondary factor for ordering people with similar compatibility scores can be the questionnaire answers.”
She started typing, and moments later, she straightened up, letting out a sigh.
“That worked.” She looked up at Alex, beaming. “That was genius.”
“Thanks. I’ve been using this strategy since college. It may seem ridiculous, but it’s effective.”
“It was. And it was the final thing—we can test the update!”
“Excellent!” Alex’s face lit up, and he grabbed Grace’s hand, pulled her to her feet, and spun her around. She laughed as he twirled her then brought her to a stop, stepping back. He looked a little embarrassed.
“Should we test it right now?” she asked.
“No, we should go home and rest,” Alex said. “Or you should go out and celebrate. This is a big achievement. You’ve put so much into the app already.”
“Maybeweshould go celebrate,” Grace said on impulse. “After all, you helped me with this last push. And you’re the reasonanypart of the app works—or even exists. It’s a big win for you even more than me.”
“Oh, no, I couldn’t,” Alex said. Grace’s shoulders slumped, and she took a step back.
“Right. I was just being silly.”
“It’s late, and there’s a lot to do,” Alex added.
“Of course.”
“And we both need our rest.”
“You’re right.”
“Okay, then. Congratulations again.”
“Thanks.” Alex headed for the door, but at the last minute, Grace called out.
“Wait!” Maybe she was being silly again, but she wanted to celebrate with Alex. And though he’d said no, she was almostcertain that he wanted that, too. “How about just one quick drink? It’ll take fifteen minutes, tops.”
Alex turned back, hesitation written all over his face. “I’m not sure that would be professional.”
“We’ll go back to professionalism first thing tomorrow,” Grace told him. She crossed the room and took his hand, giving it a little tug. “Come on. It’ll be fun. And you were the one who said we need a break before testing the app tomorrow.”
